Fabacher v. Fabacher
Fabacher v. Fabacher
Opinion of the Court
J. P. Hudson & Sons, in liquidation, and Joseph Y. Ferguson & Co.; judgment creditors of' Louis B. Fa-bacher, son and heir of Peter Fabacher, appeal from the judgment on a rule to homo-logate the partition between the widow and heirs of Peter Fabacher, wherein Louis B. Fabacher was ordered to collate- $15,000 due to his father.
The procés verbal of the notary making the partition contains the following items: Louis B-. Fabacher is recognized as one of the heirs of his father, Peter Fabacher, and entitled to :/i« of $101,663.49, amounting to $4,941.93.
“And inasmuch as in the said judgment the said Louis B. Pabacher is ordered to collate and accdunt for the sum of $15,000 to the community heretofore existing between the deceased and the widow plaintiff herein, making the amount due and to be collated herein as $7,500, which amount the said Louis B. Pa-bacher has failed to pay, and inasmuch as the said amount, to wit, $7,500, is in excess of the amount due the said Louis B. Pabacher, as per the foregoing figures, I, the said notary, as a process of collation, .did proceed to further partition the said amount due the said Louis B. Pabacher among the other heirs in the proportions to which they are entitled thereto under the said judgment, as follows, to wit:
“Share of Mrs. Peter Pabacher in the share of Louis B. Pabacher $2,470.96.”
Then follows the allotment to each heir.
To the rule to homologate the partition Hudson & Sons and Ferguson & Co. made returns and opposed same on the ground that no portion of the $15,000 was due by Louis B. Pabacher to the succession of his father or his heirs, or to his mother, Mrs. Peter Pabacher.
The rule to homologate was made final, and the oppositions of the creditors of Louis B. Pabacher were dismissed. Prom this judgment the two creditors referred to have appealed.
The record shows that judgment had been herein rendered ordering the property of Peter Pabacher sold and a partition effected. The real estate was sold for $102,225; the personal property was sold for $8,800 — making a gross sum of $111,025 to be partitioned. After paying all the debts which the heirs agreed were fair and reasonable, there was a net balance of $101,663.49. Of this amount Mrs. Peter Pabacher, the widow in community, was entitled to one half, or $50,831.74; the balance of $50,831.75, under the terms of the will, was to be divided among the children of the deceased and two grandchildren.
Several judgments had been rendered against Louis B. Pabacher, one of the children and one of the heirs. He was entitled to receive the sum of $4,941.93 if he had not been called upon in the will to collate the sum of $15,000; that being the amount the father stated in his will should be collated by Louis B. Pabacher.
Article 1991, C. C., provides:
“Neither can they [creditors] call on a coheir of the debtor to collate, when such debtor has not exercised that right.”
And the opposition of the creditors of Louis B. Pabacher was on this ground properly dismissed. Louis B. Pabacher could have called upon his coheirs to collate. lie did not do so, and his creditors had no right under the law to force him to do so. There was no suggestion of fraud against Peter Pabacher in the distribution of his estate among his children; and the evidence showed that Louis B. Pabacher was indebted to his father.
Article 1594, O. C., also provides that the reduction of a donation can be sued for only by forced heirs or by their heirs or assigns. See Tompkins v. Prentice, 12 La. Ann. 465; Champagne v. Bloch Bros., 121 La. 193, 46 South. 207.
But there is an error in the proposed distribution in favor of Mrs. Peter Pabacher. The amount of $15,000 ordered to be collated by Louis B. Pabacher was a debt due to the community, $7,500 of which was due to the widow, Mrs. Pabacher. It was shown that
The judgment fixing the amount in favor of Mrs. Fabacher is final except in so far as Hudson and Ferguson are concerned; and the coheirs have not appealed from a judgment awarding that amount to their mother, and they have not asked for any amendment of the judgment in this respect. The amount is not properly disposed of by the judgment appealed from; and it must go to the appellants.
It is ordered, adjudged, and decreed that the judgment appealed from be amended by striking therefrom the order dismissing the oppositions of Hudson and Ferguson, and that it be further amended by adding the words:
“And out of the said sum of $2,470.96 shall be paid in full, or as far as said fund will pay them, the judgments of J. P. Hudson & Sons, in liquidation, and Joseph V. Ferguson & Co., with interest and costs in both courts.”
070rehearing
On Rehearing.
This is an appeal from a judgment rejecting appellants’ oppositions to the proposed homologation of an act of partition of the estate of the late Peter Fabacher. Appellants held judgments against Louis B. Fabacher, a son and heir of Peter Fabacher, which judgments were. recorded before Peter Fabacher died. He left a widow and nine sons and daughters, all of age. He left a will in which he gave to his two grandchildren, children of Louis B. Fabacher, one-eighth of his estate. The remaining seven-eighths went to the nine sons and daughters of the deceased. In his will Peter Fabacher declared that he had advanced to his son, Louis B. Fabacher, $15,000, for which the son had given his written acknowledgment, and that the amount was to be deducted from the son’s share in the succession of his father and mother.
The estate of Peter Fabacher consisted of both real estate and personal property, all belonging to the marital community. The widow brought suit against her nine sons and daughters and two grandchildren for a sale of the property to effect a partition. There was judgment ordering the property sold and referring the parties to a notary public for a division or apportionment of the proceeds. The result of the division was that Louis B. Fabacher’s share" of the proceeds was less'tiran his indebtedness to his father’s succession. There were ten or more judgments recorded against Louis B. Fa-bacher, the inscriptions of which had to be canceled, to clear the. title to the real estate and to refer the judgment creditors to the proceeds of the sales of it. The notary therefore had a rule served upon each of the judgment creditors, ordering them to show cause why their judgments should not be .canceled and why the proeés verbal of the partition of the estate should not be ho-mologated. In answer to the rule, the creditors opposed the proposed division of the estate, averring that Louis B. Fabacher had not owed his father anything, and that the proeés verbal of the partition was not in due form. Hence they claimed that Louis B. Fabacher’s share of the proceeds of the sales of the property was not extinguished by
On the original hearing of this appeal it was found that, in requiring Louis B. Fa-bacher to collate, or leave in the succession, the share due to him, which was $4,941.97 the notary public had credited half of that sum, $2,470.98, to the widow, and had credited the other half to the remaining heirs, in the proportion due to each of them. A majority of the members of the court were of the opinion that as the widow was not an heir of her deceased husband, she was not entitled to participate in the collation made by Louis B. Fabacher, that the entire share that would have gone to him if he had not owed the succession should go to his coheirs, but that, inasmuch as they had not appealed from the judgment homologating the procés verbal of the partition, they were not entitled to an amendment of the judgment, and that therefore the $2,470.98 that had been credited to the widow of Peter Fabacher should be paid to Louis B. Fabacher’s creditors who had appealed.
Instead of adding, figuratively, to the $101,663.49 of cash to be distributed the $15,000 debt due by Louis B. Fabacher before apportioning the estate, the notary, after dividing the net sum, $101,663.49, and having ascertained the sum which would have been due to Louis B. Fabacher if he had not owed the succession, redistributed that sum among the widow and heirs. Appellants contend that the notary should first have added, figuratively, to the $101,663.49 of cash which he had for distribution the $15,000 due by Louis B. Fabacher. Our opinion is that, inasmuch as only $7,500 was to be collated in the succession of Peter Fabacher, the notary should first have added that sum to the $50,831.74 to be distributed among the nine heirs and two legatees. But the result
The judgment heretofore rendered by this court having been set aside by the granting of a rehearing, the- judgment of the civil district court appealed from is now affirmed at the cost of the appellants.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.